Rome Day 1: The Vatican
The Vatican MuseumsThe good ship Jade returned us to Civitavecchia where we met our limovan service to Rome. After dropping off our luggage at our hotels near the Termini Train Station we had our driver take us to the Vatican Museum entrance.
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| The overwhelming Vatican Museum with entrance at far end and Sistine Chapel at near end |
Due to the very recent election of Pope Francesco in the Sistine Chapel we knew the chapel would be closed on our visit to the Vatican. It was also closed during Christmas in 1970 when I was last in Rome. Perhaps I will succeed on my third visit.
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| This bronze pine cone was a Roman fountain and was once in the courtyard of the old St Peter's Basilica |
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| Janice with double-faced Janus heads (January looks forward & back) |
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| Dramatic "per-sona" megaphone masks |
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| Apollo Belvedere is the classical ideal of masculine beauty |
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| Laocoon and his sons were killed by the gods for warning the Trojans: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" |
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| Michaelangelo said of the Belvedere Torso: "I am a pupil of the Torso" |
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| Greek bust of Pericles, who built the Parthenon |
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| The long Map Gallery |
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| Raphael's "School of Athens" Fresco |
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| Exiting the museum via the spectacular spiral stairs |
Saint Peter's Basilica and Square
After leaving the museum we followed along the outside of the Vatican walls to enter the long but fast-moving security queue in St Peter's Square to enter the basilica.
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| Vatican Swiss Guards (no, Michaelangelo did not design their costume but he did design the Basilica) |
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| The basilica is breath-taking in scale and ornamentation |
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| A 24 year-old Michaelangelo carved this Pieta. I saw it up close and without glass in 1970 before it was hacked by a vandal with a hammer in 1972 |
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| Janice touches the kiss-polished and worn foot of the statue of St Peter from the old Basilica |
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| John and I climbed the 323 claustrophobic stairs to the dome's cupola for a grand panoramic view of Rome |
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| A telephoto view of the domed roof of the Roman-built Pantheon from St Peter's Cupola |
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| The Vatican Gardens |
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| The roof of St Peter's Basilica |
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| Bernini's Colonnade |
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| A fine filling Italian dinner capped our first day in Roma |
Rome Day 2: Day Trip to Tivoli's Villa Adriana and Villa D'Este
Hadrian's Villa (Villa Adriana)
At the end of his far-flung travels of conquest Spanish-born Roman Emperor Hadrian (who ruled A.D. 117-138) built a huge villa complex 18 miles east of Rome in the Sabine Hills to be his retreat seat of government. Though its glory days are long past there is a surprising amount of remains, including pools, mosaic floors and building walls to explore and wonder at.
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| Tricia-Rose and Bob |
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| Janice & Ron and the buns of stone |
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| Helmeted and shielded but unclothed Mars |
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| Marg, John, Tricia-Rose, Janice & Ron |
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| Venus in the remains of her circular temple |
Villa D'Este
In the 1550s Cardinal Ippolito, grandson of Pope Alexander VI, destroyed a Benedictine monastery to build himself a late-Renaissance pleasure palace and fantasy baroque water garden in Tivoli, just 2.5 miles from Hadrian's Villa. The once-neglected villa and grounds have been entirely restored.
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| Richly ornamented ceilings of the villa |
Rome Day 3: Rainy Day Pilgrimage Tour of Rome's Churches
Tricia-Rose had to fly home to work on Monday morning so that left the remaining five pondering what to do with a rainy day in Rome. On Monday most of Rome's museums are closed and with the rain we decided to take Metro to some of the best churches in search of some of Rome's more famous religious relics, architecture and artistic triumphs.
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| Michaelangelo's horned Moses is in St Peter in Chains Church |
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| These are said to be the chains that bound Peter in prisons in Jerusalem and Rome |
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| Church of San Giovanni in Laterano |
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| San Giovanni in Laterano's huge doors once graced the Imperial Roman Senate |
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| San Giovanni in Laterano's Bishop Chair and apse mosaics |
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| The inside of the old Imperial Roman Senate Doors |
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| Pilgrims on the Holy Stairs |
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| Naiiad Fountain at Piazza della Repubblica |
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| Bernini's ecstatic Santa Teresa in Santa Maria della Vittoria Church |
Rome Day 4: Walk from the Colosseum to Piazza Navonna
The Colosseum and the Roman Forum
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| The shift from an Imperial venue for appeasing the masses with bloody spectacles to tourist trap shows we have learned something over two millennia |
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| Detail of Arch of Constantine |
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| Looking up under the Arch of Titus I saw this detail of an emperor identified with the Imperial Eagle |
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| The level of this Christian church door set into a Roman temple shows the level of the detritus-filled Forum before excavation |
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| The site of Caesar's cremation is still bedecked with flowers |
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| One of many statues in the House of the Vestal Virgins |
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| The base of the Arch of Septimus Severus |
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| Arch of Septimus Severus |
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| Forum from the stairs up Capitoline Hill |
Capitoline Hill to Piazza Navonna
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| Michaelangelo placed the original of this statue of Constantine in the center of his Piazza del Campidoglio on Capitoline Hill |
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| Trajan's Column tells a spiral story of his heroic conquest of the Dacians (the Dacian view was somewhat different) |
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| Trajan also built a huge commercial market |
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| The over-the-top monument to Victor Emmanuel the first king of a unified Italy |
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| The curious Pulcino della Minerva statue near the Pantheon was designed by Bernini |
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| Virgin Mary Shrine in Sopra Minerva Church |
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| We could not enter the Pantheon as a mass was underway. The incredible preservation of this impressive Roman structure is due to its immediate conversion from temple to church |
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| The gang in front of the Pantheon |
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| Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navonna |
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| Our parting dinner at Ciccia Bomba |
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| Janice declared this flaming Creme Brulee to be the best ever |
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| Ron loved his Tiramisu |
This was our last dinner together as the next morning Janice, Ron and I were boarding a train for a five-day tour of Assisi, Siena, Florence and Orvieto before returning to Rome and flying home. John and Marg stayed in Rome for four more days of adventure before flying home one day ahead of us. This final leg of our Mediterranean Odyssey will be the subject of the next posting: "Celebrating the Spirit of Assisi, Siena and Florence"
Ciao!
